


Oceans Away

by SerStolas



Series: Rebelcaptain Selkie AUs [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, F/M, Folklore, Inspired by Music, Reunions, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-07 20:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17372747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerStolas/pseuds/SerStolas
Summary: He can hear the sounds of the waves lapping on the beach.  The woman he loves is thousands of miles away after she rejected him, and he could not resist the pull back to the water...~~This fic was inspired by the song Oceans Away by Arizona and my obsession with Selkie myths.  And for once, Cassian is the Selkie rather than Jyn.~~





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Star Wars.  
> The band Arizona owns the Copyright on Oceans Away. Words in italics are the lyrics to the song.  
> I may be slightly obsessed with Selkies. And while in the myths there are issues of consent regarding relationships between Selkie and Human, I tend to write stories where the consent issue RE relationships is a bit less problematic. I do not like non-consensual relationships at all.  
> Find me on Tumblr @serstolas

_I never let_   
_My guard go down_   
_But you messed me up_   
_When you came around_

Cassian Andor used to visit the shores of England often. There were countries where his kind weren't safe, where they could not reveal themselves to humans for fear of what someone might try to do to them because of their magic, their seal skin, their mere existance. England, while in the past had been just as dangerous, had a large fae population, and eventually it had become a safe haven.

He'd met Jyn Erso on a gray day where the sky spat rain upon the beach. Most humans had fled to their villages and hid under roofs, but this slight, green eyed woman had wandered along the cool, sandy shore, barefoot and in a pair of worn trousers and oversized light sweater, occasionally leaning down to pick up a sea shell and run her fingers over it before depositing the shell back onto the sand. He watched dark strands of her hair flutter in the breeze as they escaped her messy ponytail, and he was instantly captivated.

He would learn later that Jyn was an earth witch of some power and repute. She'd survived attempts to paint her as an evil sorceress and distrust from those mortals that disliked magic in general. Her fiery spirit could not be quenched by even the greatest wave, and it was one of the things he would come to love most about her.

Something about her drew him to her. It was no spell, no coercion, just a natural magnetism between the two of them.

Cassian had slipped from the rocky isle he'd been sunning on and swam across the distance, sliding out of the water and shedding his skin. A bit of inborn magic allowed him to clothe himself in the human way in well worn jeans and a tshirt, disguising is seal skin as a jacket.

Jyn had seen him emerge from the water, and watched with quiet curiosity, waiting until he was clothed and standing to approach him. She'd greeted him politely, and asked what brought him to the beach. He'd been amused and asked her the same, "Since most humans hide inside when it rains."

He would never forget the sound of her peel of laughter.

They'd spoken for a time, standing there in the rain, before she'd invited him to join her for tea, and they'd ended up at a tea shop in the village. She was there for the spring, studying the area and the way it seemed to naturally draw creatures of magic. Over the next few weeks they'd met several times: on the beach, at the tea shop, at a local pub for fish and chips. They'd spent the spring dancing around each other, forming a quiet friendship based on their mutual love of the sea, respect for the natural world, and fascination with each other.

Spring and bled into summer, and she'd found excuses to stay in the cottage on loan from a friend. She'd spent the summer brewing healing teas and casting wards of protection and luck for both locals and vacationers. Cassian had started spending evenings in the cottage with her, eating freshly caught fish and telling stories to each other: Jyn of her adventures traveling around European, studying magic and cataloguing the strength of magic stored in natural rock formations, Cassian of his travels from country to country, beach to beach, of his time with his colony. Their relationship shifted slowly, in such a seamless way that neither really noticed how it changed from friendship to love.

Cassian understood her when she would get preoccupied while studying and preparing a particular spell or lost in examining local standing stones. Jyn understood him and his need to return to the waves, wrapped in his seal skin for a few days every once in awhile because he was a selkie and could never be fully torn from the water.

One summer evening, his fellow Selkie and friend Leia had appeared on Jyn's doorstep as they'd been sipping tea and talking. Jyn and Leia became fast friends, both women appreciating the inner fire in the other, the determination and the love for those they considered family or friend. As the summer wore on, Jyn had introduced Cassian and Leia to her brother-in-all-but-blood Bodhi Rook, and their friends Han Solo and Chewie, who owned the local pub.

Leia and Han had clashed immediately, and the odd relationship that seemed to develop between them confused everyone.

Fall came, the leaves changing color and the weather growing colder. Jyn found excuses to stay in Bodhi's cottage even when Bodhi returned to the city. Jyn and Cassian grew closer, Cassian spend many a night tangled beneath the covers with her in bed.

For Jyn, Cassian would gladly stay land-bound for most of his life.

As the cold November winds battered the cottage, Jyn told him sadly one night she would have to return to the city after the new year, to her studies and to teach students during the upcoming winter.

And Cassian had done what few selkies ever considered. He offered Jyn his seal skin. He offered to bind his life to hers, for the rest of their lives.

He had seen her old fear of being left alone, of the old pain in her eyes. She'd told him of how her mother had died when she was young, sudden and sharp in a car accident. She'd told him of how her father had been there, physically at first, but mentally and emotionally had drifted away, and how he'd eventually vanished entirely, leaving her in the care of an old family friend, Saw Guerra, and how during her first year of college Saw had been taken from her too, the victim of a cough illness caused by a spell gone wrong.

_When the high wore off_   
_Know you needed space_   
_But I don't wanna wait_   
_I don't wanna mistake_

What Jyn feared most was giving her heart to someone, and them leaving her. What she feared now was that eventually the call of the sea would taken Cassian away from her too.

When someone stole a selkie's skin from them, they did not own the Selkie, but they could make threats, the same way people threatened people's family members and friends to make them do what they wanted. But the nature of a selkie's magic would not allow them to be permanently tied to someone who tried to take their skin by force.

But a skin freely given? That was a gift, a promise from the Selkie akin to marriage. In her fear, though, Jyn had thrust the skin back at Cassian, tears dripping from her eyes as she told him she could not, that she knew eventually he too would have to leave.

And sadly, because of the nature of that gift, that promise, Cassian had no choice but to leave. The second Jyn rejected his seal skin, the call of the ocean had drawn him like a siren song, and he could not resist, for all that he desperately wanted to stay with Jyn, to overcome her fear. Her fear lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

_Few thousand miles and an ocean away_   
_But I see the sunrise, oh, just like the other day_   
_Picture your eyes as I fall asleep_   
_Tell myself it's alright, oh oh, as the tears roll by_

The draw of the sea had pulled Cassian back into the water, and he'd simply swam. Days and nights on end, in a haze of heartbreak, he'd found himself on the eastern shore of the United States. There'd been a colony already established here, in Maine, with miles and miles of unoccupied beaches. The established colony had built their own homes, living as easily in sea side homes as in the water and had integrated themselves into the local seaside town. They owned or worked at local businesses, some even worked on the fishing vessels that called this town dock home.

Cassian let them draw him in, selkies instinctively being able to guess at the cause of his sorrow. That winter they let him into their homes and comforted him as they could. Though Cassian could not escape the wish he was with Jyn, or the tears that would drift down his cheeks some mornings when he recalled the sunsets they would watch together.

_Ooh, I wish I could feel your face  
Ooh, I'm helpless when I'm oceans away_

Months passed. He settled into life here, remaining by the ocean, choosing to make a home here. He found a job with the local Forestry service, working to patrol the wildlife refuge and national forests in the area. At least he could be with his kith if he could not be with Jyn. Winter rolled into Spring, Spring into summer, and life went on.

Bodhi surprised Cassian one late spring morning. Cassian was off work that morning and he'd come into town to visit the local coffee shop run by a curmudgeon of a witch, a local selkie, and staffed by a few local brownies. Cassian had been sipping his coffee, reading a book in the corner of the shop when Bodhi walked in.

The expression on the human man's face was one of relief, and friendliness. He'd been looking for Cassian as his time had permitted, wondering what had become of his friend. Intentionally, neither of them mentioned Jyn, but Bodhi announced that he'd transferred to the University of Maine at Augusta, and could visit here on weekends.

  
_I never felt_   
_A room so still_   
_See the future coming_   
_Hope it isn't real_   
_I learned to fake a smile_   
_As the time runs out_   
_I don't wanna wait_   
_Oh, I don't wanna mistake_

So Bodhi visited him some weekends when they were both free. Bodhi told him of Leia and her ongoing relationship with Han, and how somehow the two were actually dating now. He'd talk of Chewie, and others in town that Cassian had met. After seeing the pain in Cassian's eyes the one time he mentioned Jyn, Bodhi avoided bringing her name up again, though Cassian knew that Bodhi was still in contact with Jyn, and probably told her about Cassian's presence here.

So life went on here, as Summer bled away into Fall. Bodhi visited when he could, though classes had started up again and he taught a number of them. He and Cassian emailed each other, and occasionally called. Eventually Han emailed him, and he started corresponding with Han and Leia again.

But the Jyn sized hole in his heart remained. He didn't quite know how to reach out to her, or if she still longed for him as he longed for her. Someday, maybe he'd have the strength to ask Bodhi for her number or email.

For now, he lived.

_Few thousand miles and an ocean away_   
_But I see the sunrise, oh, just like the other day_   
_Picture your eyes as I fall asleep_   
_Tell myself it's alright, oh, as the tears roll by_   
_Ooh, I wish I could feel your face_   
_Ooh, I'm helpless when I'm oceans away_


	2. Life After You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after Cassian had offered her his skin, and she had rejected it out of fear, Jyn realized just how alone she really was, and how her own fear had lead to. Unsure what to do, she returns to her life in London, but memories of her time with the Selkie haunt her. With a little help for Leia and Han,, can Jyn overcome her fear, the curse of the selkie, and reunite with her beloved?
> 
> Inspired by the song Life After You by Daughtry. Follow Up to Oceans Away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own Star Wars  
> I don't own Life After You by Daughtry
> 
> find me on tumblr @serstolas

_Ten miles from town_   
_And I just broke down_   
_Spitting out smoke on the side of the road_   
_I'm out here alone_   
_Just trying to get home_   
_To tell you I was wrong, but you already know_   
_Believe me, I won't stop at nothing to see you_   
_So I've started running_

She stood by the old jeep, one of the last vehicles left available for rental at the small, regional airport she'd flown into here in northern Maine.  To be fair, the woman at the counter had warned her that the Jeep was old.  Jyn would have hoped car rental agencies would have newer vehicles available, but evidently the inventory had been moved recently to one of the nearby cities for more availability there.  This area didn't get a lot of visitors in the mid to late fall, with the chill wind blowing off the North Atlantic and frost riming the grass every morning.  

She sighed and climbed back into the SUV, checking the service on her phone.  Battery at 50% and two bars, it was better than she'd expected out here.  Her navigation system told her she was still ten miles out from the nearest town and Jyn found herself debating if it would make more sense to try and walk the distance, far though it may be, or wait for a tow.  A quick search told here there was a repair shop in town at least.

Fifteen minutes later she was promised a tow truck would be there in the next hour.  She leaned back in the driver's seat and stared up at the worn ceiling.  She wouldn't even but stuck here if not for her own actions, she thought with dark amusement.  Of all the things that could go-

She forced those thoughts to a stop.  She was here for a reason.  It had been precisely 344 days since she had last seen the Selkie Cassian Andor, and she wore she was going to see him again within the next 48 hours.  

Whether he still wanted her, well, she wouldn't know that until she saw him, but she was done letting her fear completely control her.  Threat of rejection or not, Jyn was going to apologize for rejecting one of the best things that had ever happened to her, and hoped that maybe, just maybe, the love she felt for him might be enough to help repair the damage she'd done the night she'd rejected him.

The fall morning after Cassian had offered her his seal skin and she'd rejected it out of fear of being alone, out of a fear of what ifs, that his need for the ocean would some day draw him away, Jyn had searched the cottage, the nearby shores, and the village.  Cassian had vanished, completely, leaving a burning hole in her heart.    
  
At a complete loss of what to do, and with the bone deep knowledge that Cassian was truly gone, Jyn had fled, going back to the city.

She'd spent a miserable Spring semester teaching classes on healing potions and spells to students, unable to heal the pain in her own heart.  During those months she'd made no attempt to contact anyone in the village, too wrapped up in her own misery.

It had finally been Bodhi who told her point blank that she needed to do something about her fear.  

"I know why you're afraid Jyn," he'd told her.  "But you can't let your fear of being left alone because your father and your mother left you control your entire life.  You love Cassian, you need to do something about this.  Isn't your happiness and his worth it?  Worth anything?"

_All that I'm after is a life full of laughter_   
_As long as I'm laughing with you_   
_And I think that all that still matters is love ever after_   
_After the life we've been through_   
_'Cause I know there's no life after you_

So one cool Spring weekend, Jyn had forced herself to return to the village.  A search on Friday evening revealed what she already knew in her bones, that Cassian still wasn't there.  He hadn't reached out to her and he hadn't returned here.  She hurt, and it was an injury of her own making.

She'd found herself in the pub, staring at a beer.  The greeting she received from Chewie and Han was closer to a long lost friend than she'd expected, and she realized just how much her time in this village had etched itself on her heart.  She'd taken the opportunity to catch up with them.  They'd let her stay past closing, Han watching her while he cleaned glasses behind the bar.  

"Alright, Erso, tell me what's going on.  It's Cassian, isn't it?" Solo asked her.

Perceptive, she thought.  She gave a slow nod, feeling tears well in her eyes even now.

Han sighed and set the glass down, reaching out to put his hand over hers.  "Look, kid, if there's anything I've learned over the past several months, loving a selkie is complicated, but it isn't impossible.  Why don't you tell me what happened that night, the night he left?"

_Last time we talked_   
_The night that I walked_   
_Burns like an iron in the back_   
_Of my mind_

As if she could ever forget that night.  Slowly, the words tumbled out.  She told Han of how she'd told Cassian she had to return to the city to teach, how she couldn't remain on the shore anymore.  Han nodded as she spoke, quietly refilling her drink, and it seemed as if nothing that she told him really surprised him.  Jyn wondered just how much Han had learned about Selkies during his time with Leia.  

She admitted aloud between the two of them that she knew there was something about their seal skins and their relations with humans, but all of the stories she'd read had spoke about stealing seal skins from selkies and hiding them, and how such action in the stories always forced the Selkies into a marriage they might not actually want.  The stories always said if they found their skin, they would return to the sea and would not return to human form for at least seven years after, the call of the sea too much for them to resist.  She shuttered as she spoke.  The thought of trapping Cassian, of trapping any selkie, in a relationship they might not completely consent to was abhorrent.  That was one reason she'd been confused when Cassian had offered her his skin.

She knew now though, that the offer of the skin had been a declaration, one of everlasting love, and not a declaration to be taken lightly.  What she'd discovered while researching things during the winter was that by rejecting a selkie's skin, the rejection forced them back to the sea.

Han squeezed her hand lightly.  "Hmm, well, I can tell you one thing, Kid, the stories aren't always true.  There is a seven year thing, which is bad news in your case.  So stealing a selkie's skin doesn't force them into marriage, so it doesn't give the human any control to force them into a marriage, but it does mean they can't return to the water.  You're right that only the lowest scum would steal a selkie's skin, and a selkie will go to great lengths to get a stolen skin back.  As for the seven year thing, when a Selkie does fall in love with a mortal or a land dweller, them offering their skin is a sign they want to be bound and mated for life.  It's a precious gift, it really is."  He sighed.  "Problem is, if the human partner rejects the skin, then the Selkie can't return to them for seven years.  So Cassian can't come back here, or to you, for seven years."

_I must have been high_   
_To say you and I weren't meant to be_   
_And just wasting my time_   
_Oh why did I ever doubt you_   
_You know I would die here without you_

That caused Jyn to break.  She remembered Han saying something to Chewie about finishing the clean up, then she remembered Han comforting her as she cried into her friend's shoulder.

While Jyn had known her choice to reject Cassian's skin out of fear had cost her a great deal, the true enormity of the cost came crashing down around her at Han's words.  Seven years...Cassian couldn't see her for seven years.  Her half formed hope that she could find him and apologize and beg for another chance vanished, and she found herself swallowed by her misery and her grief.  She'd been some a damned fool.  When Cassian had offered her his skin, he'd offered her a life long commitment, an offer to stay forever, the exact opposite of the thing she feared the most.  Her own fear and foolishness had cost her the love of a man who offered her his whole heart.

No...No..No..

She remembered repeating that word, and of the guilt that threatened to consume her.  At some point, Han moved her out of the bar and to the upstairs apartment, and evidently let her cry herself to sleep on his couch.  She'd awoken the next morning with eyes filled with sand, an aching head, and the serious brown eyes of one Leia Organa zeroing in on her from the chair next to the couch.

_All that I'm after is a life full of laughter_   
_As long as I'm laughing with you_   
_And I think that all that still matters is love ever after_   
_After the life we've been through_   
_'Cause I know there's no life after you_

"So Han told me what happened," Leia told her over breakfast, as tea and food helped chase away Jyn's headache.  "It's true that Cassian can't reach you, can't come back to you, but that isn't the whole story."

Jyn blinked once, then twice, and stared at the selkie woman.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that while he's cursed not to be able to seek you out for seven years because to rejected his pelt, there is away around the curse," Leia told her.  "If you decide to use this work around, it means you are going to have to leave your life here behind.  He can't come to you, but  _you_ can go to him."

Leia explained then that the curse only kept the Selkie from returning to their human lover, but it did not stop the human lover from tracking down the Selkie and staying with them.  Because the curse had been caused by the human's choice to reject the pelt, the cure for the curse required the human make the choice to seek the selkie out.  It wasn't without cost.  Jyn might be free to go find Cassian, but he wouldn't be able to physically return with her to this village even if she could.  Leia was dubious about whether or not Cassian would be able to return to England at all for the seven years, because this sort of thing happened in her memory for a long time.  Not many mortals rejected a selkie offering their skin.

Jyn stared into her third mug of tea as she considered all of this, silence stretching between her and Leia.  Han was already downstairs with Chewie, preparing for the day ahead at in the pub.  

_You and I, right or wrong_   
_There's no other one_   
_After this time spent alone_   
_It's hard to believe_   
_That a man with sight could be so blind_   
_Thinking about the better times_   
_Must've been out of my mind_   
_So I'm running back to tell you_

Bodhi's words about letting her fear control her life drifted through her head, and Jyn's head snapped up.  

"Do you know where he is?"

Leia nodded, her expression cautious.  "He's in Maine."

"Bodhi's moving there," Jyn said thoughtfully.  "In the next month or so.  He's accepted a teaching position across the pond.  I bet he could help me settle over there." Her sharp green eyes met Leia's brown.  "It'll take a few months to get everything in order, sell my place in the city, give my notice, arrange for my things to be shipped over, and I'll need to find a job over there."

"So you thinking you'll move state side?" Leia asked.

"I'm not just thinking," Jyn said decisively.  "I'm going to."

A satisfied smile passed over Leia's lips.  "Well, you're a witch, and a powerful one at that.  I don't think finding work will be hard.  It's the rest you really need to worry about.  Though I expect you to email Han once you get settled, so that we can come and visit, and to tell us what happened."

Jyn looked timid for a moment.  "Do you really think he'll want to see me again?" she asked her friend.

Leia snorted.  "Jyn, Cassian is head over heels for you.  That kind of love doesn't just fade in a Selkie...it might take some time to trust again, but he wants you, I can guarantee it."

Jyn surprised Leia by hugging her.  "Thank you, Leia, for everything."

_All that I'm after is a life full of laughter_   
_Without you God knows what I'd do_   
_All that I'm after is a life full of laughter_   
_As long as I'm laughing with you_

Jyn stared out the front windshield of the jeep and waited.  In the back seat sat one large duffel bag and a backpack of everything she'd need for a few weeks.  Most of her worldly possessions currently sat in a small storage unit in Augusta, Maine.  Bodhi had helped her arrange for the shipping and delivery of her belongings in Augusta, and the storage locker wasn't far from his apartment.  He'd promised to check on it every month until she moved her things out of it, and it was set up on auto pay.  A week ago Jyn had finalized her new employment with the forestry service.  As a nature witch, her skills were actually highly sought after in an area of hundreds if not thousands of miles of pristine forest and coast line.  

She'd already decided that the town she now waited for a tow to would serve as the best base of operations for her.  She had to hope that Cassian wouldn't turn her away, though Leia and Bodhi had both assured her many times he wouldn't.

Jyn knew she had a lot to make up for, but she was determined to do so.

She greeted the tow truck driver with a wave when the woman finally arrived and arranged for her vehicle to be towed to the local shop.  By now it would be too late for anyone to take a look at it, but someone could take a look in the morning.  Jyn already knew the town was small enough she could walk to a motel on foot, and once she checked in there then she'd find some dinner.  Tomorrow, she'd reach out to Cassian.

Once the vehicle was delivered at the shop and Jyn's worldly possessions were in a hotel room with a single queen bed, small fridge, and microwave, she walked to a nearby bar and grill.  She'd eaten fish and chips so many times with Cassian during their time together, it seemed like a good meal for tonight, a hopeful one.

Jyn opened the door, letting her gaze swing around the room as the hostess greeted her with a smile and started to ask how many she needed a table for.

"Jyn?"

Cassian's well loved voice drifted to her ears and Jyn turned.  

Cassian stared at her as if she were a ghost.  His brown eyes were wide with disbelief, and a painfully naked hope.

Jyn took one step, two, and threw herself in his arms.

Cassian's arms closed around her, his lips pressed lightly against her own, and she felt a few tears of joy slip from her eyes.  She looked up at him, all the love she felt for this wonderful selkie in that gaze.  He returned that gaze, a few questions in his eyes, but mostly love and hope.

"Welcome home, my love," he told her quietly, then ushered her towards his table.

"I love you," she told him.  "And I'm so very glad to finally be home."

_And I think that all that still matters is love ever after_   
_After the life we've been through_   
_I know there's no life after you_   
_No there's no life after you_


End file.
